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Integrum ESG’s Real-Time ESG Sentiment data tracks how news and social media coverage of a company’s ESG performance is changing. Our AI model monitors more than 47,000 news and social media sources, updates every 15 minutes and alerts investors when a story is building, before it becomes a full controversy.
Purpose
Why track ESG sentiment
ESG ratings built on company disclosures look backwards. Most companies report once a year, so a rating reflects what a company said about its last reporting period, not what is happening to it now. A product recall, a data breach or a regulatory investigation can reach the market long before it appears in a sustainability report.
Real-Time ESG Sentiment fills that gap. It runs alongside our disclosure-based analysis, continuously monitoring every public and private company in our database, and shows when coverage of a company’s ESG performance starts to shift. ESG news can move share prices, so an early signal gives investors time to investigate, engage the company or adjust a position.
Method
How it works
- Collect Our AI model ingests coverage from more than 47,000 news and social media sources in multiple languages.
- Classify A natural language processing model identifies ESG-related news about each company and classifies each item as positive, negative or neutral.
- Filter and validate Context models filter out mentions that are not material, and our analysts review material events to confirm their relevance.
- Score and track Classified items combine into a net sentiment score for each company: over the past seven days, the percentage of non-neutral mentions that are positive minus the percentage that are negative. The score refreshes every 15 minutes, so investors can see how sentiment is moving over time.
- Alert When sentiment around a holding shifts, users receive an email alert, so a building story reaches them before it turns into a controversy.
Drilling into the cause
Every move in a company’s sentiment line can be traced to its source. Clicking the line chart shows the stories, comments and social media posts driving the change, so investors can judge for themselves whether a shift is material.
Sentiment data refreshes every 15 minutes. Aggregated controversy summaries and portfolio-level updates are validated and published on a rolling 10-day cycle.
Worked example
Worked example: McDonald’s E. coli outbreak
In October 2024, an E. coli outbreak across several US states was linked to McDonald’s Quarter Pounder burgers.
- The signal: our real-time tracker picked up the story on Tuesday 22 October 2024, and an alert went to clients as negative sentiment grew.
- The score: McDonald’s net real-time ESG sentiment score fell to a low of -61.5%.
- The market: McDonald’s shares closed at $314.70 and, as the story spread, fell more than 9% in after-hours trading to a low of $284.48.
A disclosure-based rating would not reflect the outbreak until the company next reported. The sentiment data showed it the day the story broke. Read the full analysis.
More research using our sentiment data
Cybersecurity: 35 companies flagged
Between January and September 2025, our sentiment tracker flagged 35 major global companies for hacks, breaches and other cybersecurity incidents, with a combined market value of more than $1.7 trillion. Read the analysis.
Climate: 13 companies flagged
In 2025, up to October, our sentiment tracker flagged 13 major listed companies for climate-related controversies, including incidents involving emissions. Read the analysis.
Ratings
How sentiment relates to our ESG ratings
Real-Time ESG Sentiment is reported separately from our ESG grades and does not feed into them. Our ratings are built from what companies disclose and follow fixed scoring rules, as set out in the Integrum ESG Scoring Framework. Sentiment measures how the outside world is talking about a company.
Used together, the two show both how well a company manages its material ESG issues on paper and whether events are testing that picture now. A company with a strong grade and a sharp fall in sentiment is a prompt to look closer.
Uses
How investors use the data
Early warning
Email alerts on any holding flag a building story before it becomes a controversy.
Engagement
The stories behind a sentiment shift give stewardship teams the evidence to raise an issue with a company quickly.
Investment decisions
ESG news can move share prices, so sentiment data can inform position sizing and trading as well as risk review.
Portfolio monitoring
Sentiment sits alongside each holding’s ESG scores, so a portfolio can be reviewed for both in one place.
FAQs
Frequently asked questions
What is ESG sentiment analysis?
ESG sentiment analysis uses natural language processing to read news and social media coverage of a company and classify ESG-related items as positive, negative or neutral. Integrum ESG applies it across more than 47,000 sources to show how coverage of each company’s ESG performance is changing.
How often is the sentiment data updated?
Sentiment data refreshes every 15 minutes. Aggregated controversy summaries and portfolio-level updates are published on a rolling 10-day cycle.
Does sentiment affect a company’s Integrum ESG grade?
No. Real-Time ESG Sentiment is reported separately and does not feed into our ESG grades, which are built from company disclosures.
How are false positives reduced?
Context models filter out mentions that are not material, and analysts review material events to confirm their relevance.
Can I be alerted when sentiment changes on my holdings?
Yes. Users can set up email alerts for the companies in their portfolios, so they hear when sentiment around a holding shifts.
Which companies are covered?
The model continuously monitors every public and private company in our database.
See sentiment on your holdings
Speak to our team to set up real-time ESG alerts on the companies you hold and see the stories behind every shift.